How Much Does Game Development Cost? |
Posted: March 3, 2020 |
Game development is a hard and expensive process. The cost of game development vary from game to game, the harder the game, the more expensive it will cost to develop. Different companies charge different amounts for different games, here are some of the top video game companies. Some games may require a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars while some may require a less amount. Where does the money go? As mentioned earlier, the budget needed for game development vary significantly depending on various factors. For example, game development may vary depending on the type of game, the environment and the size required to develop the game. Expenses are normally to be incurred regardless of the quality of the game. So where does the money really go? v Game designer Game designers are usually dedicated to bringing the ideas to life, develop the game and all the game content. The game designer’s and developer’s involvement is more or less similar to that of a project manager on a software development project or a coordinator. Depending on the size of the project, the duties of a game designer can be divided among other team members. On very huge projects, one needs dedicated game designers or a whole team to work with. v Game programmers Having C# and C++ programmers is key when using popular engines like Unity3D or Unreal. Also, if one plans to ship the game to several other platforms that have no specialized engines they will require programmers that specialize in android, iOs, PS4 or simply web developers. Consequently, if the game involves interaction between users and centralized data storage, then one will be required to have a client server side of the game as well.
v Game development Equipment Game development requires different equipment’s that are essential to the game developers. The hardware used for game development is usually very expensive as it needs to be very powerful. The cost also increases with the scope of the game and the team size. Developing an ambiguous game requires a bigger team and a bigger team requires more hardware equipment thus very expensive. v Game development software licence Games are essentially software and to develop one, you will require a software to use in the development process. These may include, graphics editors, animation software, integrated development environment and other third party engine. In addition to that, software licences for administration and office use also add to the expenses. Acquiring these licences is expensive, specifically those of the most specialized software. v Testing In every game development life cycle, testing is normally the most critical part. Developers and game engineers usually carry out rigorous functional, regression, performance and security testing. This is usually done to ensure that all the user requirements are met and any present bugs are fixed before the game is deployed. Testing is crucial as it ensures that one doesn’t incur game development costs and end up with an unstandardized game which fails to run on other devices. v Intellectual property rights Developing a game with certain characters like the Terminator or Superman requires one to legally buy the applicable intellectual property which may be very expensive. The same also applies when one wants to use celebrity characters or brands. v Marketing Marketing is basically one of the most crucial and most important step when making a game. Marketing is usually as high as budgeting for game development. This is because of all the campaigns one has to budget for before the game release. Typically, a big part of a game’s success comes from its marketing campaign. Conclusion Game development is an extensive and a very expensive process. The cost of developing a game normally varies from game to game. Depending on the type of game and the development company the amount may be less or extremely high.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|